Episode 4: The Black Knight

Forest Sanctuary Temple

I watched as the girl floated above the altar I placed her in. The purple glow surrounded her body as she lay unconscious just a few feet above the air. Beside me, two of the Harpies I sent after her approached with wicked smiles on their faces.

"My Lord, is she in good condition?" The red one asked, claws twirled together.

"She's a bit banged up after you knocked her out but it'll do." Seeing the NPC myself, I estimated that it was going to take some time for the process to finish once I started it. "You mentioned she was with some adventurers?"

"Actually, the adventurers found us after we chased the girl as well as the boy she was with into the Shadow Forest."

"Boy? Was he an NP- was he a villager?!" I raised my voice as the red Harpie took a step back in fear.

"Y-yes, my Lord. He was a villager but don't worry, I took care of hi-" She didn't manage to finish her sentence as I grabbed her by the throat with my own sharp claws.

"I told you, I didn't want any villagers harmed. Adventurers you can kill but villagers… they just give me more work."

"I-I'm sorry, my Lord! Please spare me!" With all my force, I threw her against the wall where she cried in pain.

"Useless fools! Not only did you go against my orders but you also managed to lose one of your own to some weaklings!"

"They were not all weak, my Lord!" The white one finally spoke up in place of her now injured friend. "One of them, a Warrior, was no normal adventurer! He had the power of the gods. His entire body lit up in flames!"

"Flames? Power of the gods?" I scoffed angrily. "You're no longer required. Get out of my sight!"

The two monsters quickly scurried away as I turned back to the girl. Not only did I have to deal with her but I also had to deal with a now dead NPC along. I didn't even know what to do about the ones who listened to her teachings. One thing at a time. However, before I could start anything, I heard a loud roar outside the temple.

'Someone triggered the Gargoyle?' I quickly peeked through the thin line the doors left open and found three adventurers taking on the boss of this dungeon. A Sorceress, an Assassin, and... a Warrior! I had no choice but to speed up the process then. Quickly, I made my way to the girl and raised my hand up.

'Time to begin!'

Opening: Innocence by Eir Aoi

My eyes stayed wide open as the silver haired girl the guy called Argenta was thrown to the side. She skidded along the ground and landed on her knee as she glanced right back at him and smiled.

"Ha! You're the one whose gotten sloppy!" She leaped back into the air and lunged straight at him, only to be met with a kick to the stomach followed by his heel which sent her crashing down into the ground. She used the momentum to push herself back and somersault backwards but he was way too fast for her as he kicked her again. This time, she stayed on the ground, grunting in pain.

"How tragic to say goodbye after such a short reunion…" He held his right hand out to her face as he was surrounded by dark purple energy. However, I decided to step in before he could deal the final blow.

"Hey!" I grabbed my sword and swung it at the dude who caught it with his left hand almost as fast as I could blink.

"You again?" He stared back at me with his menacing red eyes as I smiled back at him.

"Megumi!"

A fireball came flying towards us as he pushed me and my sword away to block the attack. The momentary smoke the spell produced allowed Pyonn to rush in and take a few slashes off of him but his armor was way too durable. The Assassin was easily swiped away to the side in an instant.

"You imbeciles..." Luckily, we were quite the diversion. In an instant, the silver haired girl got back up and landed her foot directly on the dude's face

"You should pay more attention!" She smirked as landed more kicks along his body, flipping back in style and landing on the wall behind. Her quick legs took her across the interior of the temple and up to the roof where she used the momentum to launch herself towards her opponent. He met her halfway and both of them exchanged a flurry of punches and kicks as they fought in mid-air. However, the guy managed to get a hit on her stomach and used it to get multiple jabs in. With one strike, he sent her to the floor below and landed next to her injured body.

"No!" I found my self running towards her even if my health was already low enough as is. Megumi and Pyonn also followed suit as the three of us converged on him.

"That's enough!" A ripple of dark energy burst from his body, knocking all of us back and dealing more damage than I had anticipated. Slowly raising my head, I found that my health was close to red yet again. With a single glance, I could tell the other two were the same. I watched helplessly as the same purple energy that surrounded the bad guy swept into Rose who slowly fell into his arms.

"Stop…" My eyes lit up as I tried to get up. However, I was only met with his cold stare before he and Rose managed to escape. Yet again, I felt myself drifting off into darkness...

"Hey wake up…" I felt a finger poke my cheek as two thumbed firmly grasped the corners of my mouth and began moving them like a puppet. "Thank you for saving me Daize! You're my hero, after all!"

My eyes quickly opened as I swiped away the Archer's hands, all the while glaring at him with anger. He just sat beside me in laughter.

"Sorry! I couldn't resist."

"Next time you do that, I'll kill you in real life." I threatened him. Looking around, I found Megumi and Soran looking over an unconscious Pyonn.

"Heal!" The Cleric held his mace up as green energy flowed from its tip and into the Assassin.

"Seriously though…" Daize spoke up once again. "You better not go into another dungeon without us again! You would've lost the reward if it wasn't for us."

"Well, she helped heal you too." Soran smiled as he glanced to my side. Turning around, I found the silver haired girl sitting on the staircase of the now empty altar. Her arms were crossed as well as her legs with her left leg waved up and down like a metronome.

"Don't get used to it, mortal. Just consider us even for helping me fight the Black Knight." Her voice was deep and firm like a mature woman's.

"Who are you, anyway?" I asked the most obvious question.

"Argenta…" Pyonn said as he finally woke up and scratched his head. "I didn't think I'd actually get to see you out in the field."

"I was going after Velskud. How you ended up here? I don't know and I don't care." She sighed as she brushed away a lock of her hair.

"Wait, where's Rose?" I asked, frantically looking around for the girl we had come her for. All I got in response was a lowered head by everyone except Argenta who answered my question.

"Velskud took her while we were knocked out. There's nothing you can do now." Standing up, she struggled to balance herself thanks to her injuries. As she held her stomach which had been thoroughly abused, she gritted her teeth.

Soran stepped up with his mace. "Hey, do you want me to-"

"No!" Argenta raised her hand. "I don't need anything from you adventurers!"

She limped with every step she took before exiting the temple and leaving us in complete silence. I glanced at the others who were just as curious as I was to what just happened. However, for me, this was officially the weirdest game I have ever played.

The weekend had passed like it was nothing and we were thrust back into school yet again. The morning assembly was headed by the student president whose words were carefully chosen as he announced that club activities were suspended for the time being and that all students had to go home immediately after classes. The student secretary, whose name I've already forgotten, had an uneasy look on her face all the while. The recent news of a missing girl must have put everyone in a state of fear.

As lunch break rolled around, we had to relocate to a different area since our usual 'club-room' was actually locked this time. However, before we did, we decided to visit the first years' wings to look for Michi's brother whom we haven't seen in person for a long time. With Michi himself in the lead, we found the classroom where his brother was talking to a bunch of people. Surprisingly, there were about three girls along with two boys with him which was quite the crowd compared to our very masculine lineup.

"Yo, Jin." Michi called out with a deadpanned wave as his brother turned to face us. He had mostly the same face as Michi but was a lot more expressive while he spoke with his friends. However, that quickly faded as he saw us.

"Big brother? What are you guys doing here?" He furrowed his brows as if he was saying get the hell out of here.

"The guys had a few questions about… what was her name again?" Michi turned to us to clarify as I stepped forward.

"Argenta. What do you know about her?" I didn't get to ask him last weekend since we were mostly doing quests and grinding EXP, all the while looking for any leads on where the Black Knight might have taken Rose.

"Can we talk about this later, please?" Jin took a step forward to try and silence me.

"Jin-kun? Who's Argenta?" One of the girls, a long haired and bright eyed one, asked.

"I bet it's the code-name for his secret girlfriend!" The boy with a smiling face and shaggy hair teased.

"Wha- no! She's..." A shade of red covered his young cheeks as he hesitated before turning to us and pushed us outside the classroom while his friends were left laughing. "I'll be right back okay!"

As we were forced to exit the room, I noticed the third girl who had short hair as well as glasses give him a concerned look before Jin finally shut the door behind him.

"Why couldn't you just ask me in-game?!" He scolded us as Shimpei nervously laughed.

"Why? Don't you want to see us? It's been a while, Jin-kun." He reached out to pat Jin's head only to be met with a defensive swipe.

"Big brother, why did you bring them here?" He turned to Michi who just leaned against the wall nonchalantly and shrugged his shoulders.

"We just want to know more, Jin. We figured lunch break would be the best time to ask." I answered as he let out a loud sigh.

"W-we'll buy you food if you answer our questions!" Genji spoke up as Jin decided to give in to the offer.

"I'll settle for a hot-dog bun and a grape soda." He bargained.

"Deal! Since Genji volunteered, he'll be the one to buy them." Shimpei leaned on his friend's shoulder as he sadly accepted his fate.

"What's with him?" Jin pointed at the seemingly dead body in the shade as he entered the roof area of our school with his prized food and drink in his hands.

"Don't mind him, he's just doing his job as an admin of AKO." I told him as I looked over at Aki's peaceful face with a bag of food and drinks in my hand. He's even been skipping meals just to play nowadays.

We found our spot next to him, sitting down and distributing the food among ourselves, save for Genji who had his own packed lunch. Shortly after taking a few bites, Jin started talking.

"Why do you want to know so much about her anyway?" He asked us.

"W-we're still trying to find Rose." Genji said. "Argenta seemed to know a lot about the Black Knight. We figured that if anyone could help us find them, it's her."

"Well, what's there to say? She's a mysterious NPC who's rumored to give the most rewarding quests out of anyone else in the game." Jin explained. "So far, she's rejected almost every adventurer who came up to ask her."

"So you're telling me that the best quest giver and probably our only lead in this game is an anti-social beauty?" Shimpei didn't even try to hide his admiration. He's been stricken by her cold actions after she left us in the temple. Maybe that was his type, who knows?

"More or less…"

"Is there any way to convince her to talk to us, at least? We need her help to find Rose and the Black Knight." Shimpei asked, clearly eager to converse with her.

"As Argenta said, the Black Knight's name is Velskud. He's another mysterious type who rarely shows up. No one knows much about him other than he appears once in a while to cause destruction." Jin not knowing something about this game was definitely a surprise. He and his brother usually got the lore of every game they played memorized in less than a week. "Although… this is the first time I've encountered him. The first time I heard him speak too. Two rare NPC's in a row, what the hell is going on?"

Part of me wondered the same. Ever since we logged in for the first time, we've been met with NPC kidnappings, prophecies, and powerful enemies. As I stared at my open hand, I wondered if this was linked to my Enhance ability which somehow carried over from Aura Kingdom Online. Even if I knew how to control it, there were still a lot of things I had yet to understand about it.

"So what exactly happened with you guys?" Michi wondered as we explained to him our situation. He seemed to take everything we said in stride as he sat there silently nodding. This made me wonder what his thoughts about all this were. "Sentient NPC's..."

"Can we try talking to her again?" I asked Jin as I took a sip from my soda.

"We can try but I can't guarantee that she won't push you away like she does with everyone else."

'I don't need anything from you humans!' I remembered her words. What exactly made her so hostile towards us?

"Wait, what was that book you were reading before, Michi?" Shimpei said with a full mouth. "Is it some kind of lore book? Maybe that can help us."

"Oh, you mean this?" He reached into his school bag and pulled out the same book he had been reading last week with the same dragon-like emblem on the cover. "I've only started reading this but looking through it, it's more of a development diary written by it's creator who goes by the nickname Suno."

"I've scanned through it too. That's how I found out about the systems and rules that governed that world but the lore itself is ambiguous. Apparently, the players are supposed to make the story themselves or at least discover it through NPC interaction." Jin added. "Which is why no one really knows the backstory of both of them at all besides the fan-theories on the forums. Some speculate the two are ex-lovers forever at war with one another while others think that they are a race of ancient beings who fight for the right to rule Lagendia."

"So that means we won't know much unless we ask her?" Shimpei hit his fist with his open palm. "Well, we know our next move then!"

"Like talking to her would be that easy." I said with a tone of sarcasm.

"Hey, I have confidence in us! We've been met with special monsters and NPC's thus far. Maybe we could be the first ones to melt Argenta's cold hear-" His spontaneous speech was interrupted by the driving force of my fist to his hair as I twisted my wrist left and right, making him struggle to shake it off.

"Will you stop it with the over-exaggeration already?!" I scolded as Genji laughed along while Michi simply smirked without moving his face somehow.

"Why do you hang out with these people, big brother?" Jin asked but was only met with a slight shrug from the guy who already buried his face into his book, leaving his bun only half eaten by the time the bell rang out.

The Next Day, Hokkaido

"Careful…" My hands slowly let the egg yolks fall into the bowl in front of me. Armed with a whisk, I rhythmically ran it back and forth.

It's been almost a month since I moved here in Hokkaido and I had to admit, things were going pretty well. My mom usually wakes up late due to her new job as some secretary of a brand new company whose name I already forgot so that left me with breakfast duties. That usually meant I prepared instant food but today was the day I wanted to surprise her with actual food. The eggs sizzled as they settled on the pan. Equipping the spatula beside me, I continued stirring everything until the food showed me a bright yellow color. Our apartment kitchen was a bit small but, thankfully, it had all the essentials for some simple meals.

"Mmmm…" I heard her voice coming from her room. Through my peripheral vision, I could see her groggy body already setting itself up on the little table we had next to the TV. "Something smells good. What are you making, Mari-chan?"

"Just some scrambled eggs." Literally the only thing I learned how to make properly. Thank you, Hiro.

"Well, don't keep me waiting!" She laughed as I set our plates down and took my seat in front of her. Her wide eyed smile shined upon me as she took a bite with the metal spoon I handed her. "Delicious!"

Her comment made me smirk a little. Nothing beats a bit of confidence building. It didn't take long for both of us to scarf down our breakfast. As I took the plates to the sink, my mom went into the bathroom to dress up for the day. I had to change into my school uniform as well. It was weird having a shorter skirt than usual but it kind of grew on me. Mom, especially, said it made me look prettier so there's that too. As I met her at the doorstep with my school bag in hand, I couldn't help but gawk at her business suit which was complimented with her long skirt and leggings. She even had the time to fix her shoulder length hair and put on some make-up too which truly made her look like a model.

"Looking good, mom." I smiled as she waved her hand in denial.

"You say that every time we leave, Mari-chan. You're definitely more beautiful than me!"

Our walk to the elevator was interrupted by a buzz from my phone. Opening it, I checked to see that it was from the AuraSphere app.

Wairuzu: 'Logging in tonight. We have more info regarding Argenta and that Black Knight dude. You coming?'

Megumi: 'I don't know. I'll see.'

I could only log in if my mom was out of the house since she would definitely freak if she saw me with Dad's NerveGear. She usually comes home at night which gave me a time frame of about five hours after I finish school...

"Mari-chan! The elevator's here!" Mom called out to me which made me realize how far she had gotten. I immediately rushed towards her before we entered together. "Who are you texting? It's not a boy, is it?"

"Mom!"

Later That Night, Calderock Village

"I see…" I nodded as the guys told me everything they've learned as we stood in a corner facing Calderock's busy market center. "Must be nice for all of you to be in the same school."

"Trust me, it isn't." Pyonn responded almost immediately which made the other three boys chuckle. I knew Wairuzu was Hiro and if my deductions were correct, Daize had to be Matsuo-kun with that loud personality and Soran should be Sotomura-kun. I wasn't quite sure who Orha and M were so I didn't know who Pyonn was at all. Maybe I would've met them if I stayed. To be honest, part of me wishes I didn't transfer schools but at this point, it was too late to go back. Besides, I'm glad I get to spend more time with Mom each day.

"Seriously, why are you so embarrassed around us?" Daize laughed. "When you were little, you used to like being with the big kids!"

"Can you please shut up now…" He gave the Archer a dirty stare.

"Just let him be, Daize." Soran faintly chuckled before turning towards the rest of us. "So, the big question is who's going to talk to Argenta?"

All of us glanced at one another. Clearly, Soran stumbles a bit in his conversations, Pyonn seemed like he didn't want to bother trying, Wairuzu was trying to fade away in order to avoid getting picked, and I knew that conversations weren't my strongest suit which left…

"I guess, I have no choice then!" Daize proudly bowed his head.

"Just try not to scare her off…" Wairuzu warned him.

"Ha! I'll have her playing into my hands in no time!"

"What do you want?" Argenta said with an annoyed expression as we gathered around her usual spot underneath the tree in Calderock. This was the place where I saw her singing before. We watched as Daize stood at the center, scratching his head while trying to come up with words.

"Well…" He clearly froze up at the sight of her. It seemed like I had to step in.

"We were wondering if you knew where to find Rose and the Black Knight." I said, getting straight to the point.

"You five…" Her red eye scanned through each of us one by one. "You're the ones from the Forest Sanctuary."

"The ones who helped you defeat the Black Knight, yup!" Daize finally spoke.

'You weren't even there during the fight…' I wanted to tell him.

"I told you before, don't bother looking! She's gone!" She turned her head to the side. Why was she so mad? "Besides, I didn't need your help so get lost! Just because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time doesn't mean you're anything special."

"But-"

"I said get lost! You'll never find her or the Black Knight! Once he takes someone..." A shift in her tone occurred suddenly as she lowered her head. "...they're gone forever."

"I told you, guys. It won't work." Pyonn sighed as he started walking away. Gritting my teeth, I decided I had enough of this too.

"Look, what do you have against us anyway?!" I asked her.

"It's none of your business, Warrior!" She growled at me. "You wouldn't understand…"

"Then help us." Soran walked up with his hands together. "Help us understand, Argenta. Please."

The silver haired girl glared at the Cleric but then sighed. Did Soran's innocent charm work on her or something? The answer was probably no since she stood right up and left her tree.

"I can't trust any of you…" She said as we helplessly watched her walk away to who knows where.

"That blows…" Megumi groaned. I definitely shouldn't have frozen at the start…

"There has to be a reason she hates us, right?" Soran asked with a sad tone. It wasn't our fault, right?

"Come on, you guys still need to grind in preparation for the next major area." Pyonn stated as everyone but me started walking away too. Staring at the empty tree. I shook my head and ran. With my speed, I managed to catch up to Argenta and grab her by the hand.

"What the- Hey! Let go!" She immediately pulled back her hand, glaring at me all the while with a red face. I glared right back and said the same words I said a long time ago.

"You feel lonely too, don't you?"

Her eyes widened as I realized I hit the mark. She held her hand, shaking slightly before running a slap across my face. Being in VR made it hurt less physically but I still felt it nonetheless.

"Shut… shut up." I let her walk away since I knew there was nothing I could do anymore without hurting her further.

"Daize!" Wairuzu ran up to me with an annoyed look on his face. "What the hell was that?! What did you say to her?!"

Not wanting to reveal what I actually said, I hid behind a wide smile and laughed. "Oh, you know. I tried asking her on a date!"

"Wait, are you serious?" Soran blushed.

"That has to be the most stupid thing I've ever seen anyone do." Pyonn said.

"Well, I'm guessing you got rejected then!" Megumi burst into laughter along with the rest of them. Even Wairuzu's slight smirk made me laugh too.

"I can't believe you…" The Warrior smiled.

October 2031

"Aren't we best friends?" I told him as I reached my hand out to pick him up from the ground. Up until today, I've never seen Hiro in such a state, crying and fuming as if he was angry at the whole world.

"You don't have to act nice just because you pity me…" He wiped the tears off his eyes as he stood up without my help.

"It's not because of pity, dude."

"Then why? Why do you still want to be friends with me?"

I thought long and hard about that question. It took me a moment before I managed to come up with an answer.

"You feel lonely too, don't you?"

Ending: Overfly by Luna Haruna

Next Episode: The Hobgoblin Situation